Rich Rodriquez agrees to pay $4 million to West Virginia for breaking contract to come to Michigan

West Virginia University says ex-football coach Rich Rodriguez has agreed to pay a $4 million buyout clause after breaking his contract to come to the University of Michigan.

That would settle WVU's lawsuit that had been set for trial this fall. WVU attorney Tom Flaherty says the tentative agreement was reached late Tuesday night.

It was not clear this morning how the coach would pay the buyout or whether U-M would assist in the settlement.

Flaherty says he's confident the WVU Board of Governors will approve the deal. Rodriguez quit the Mountaineers in December for the head coaching job at Michigan, only a year after extending his contract with WVU.

Flaherty said he would reveal additional details about the settlement, including the period for repayment, after the deal is approved by the board. However, he said the payment would not be made in a lump sum.

The settlement was reached on what had been a key deadline in the case. As part of the discovery process, a judge had given Rodriguez until the end of Tuesday to reveal whether the University of Michigan or anyone else had agreed to pay WVU on his behalf.

Flaherty said a document was produced, but he could not immediately divulge its contents.

Adding pressure to Rodriguez was a lawsuit WVU filed in a Michigan court last week, asking a judge to order Michigan athletic director Bill Martin and President Mary Sue Coleman to testify in depositions. A hearing on that request had been set for Wednesday afternoon.

WVU also recently got an Ohio court to issue a subpoena for testimony and records from Mike Wilcox, Rodriguez's financial adviser.

The Rodriguez camp approached the university with a "significant and serious offer" within the past few days, and WVU responded with a counterproposal Tuesday, Flaherty said. That set off a series of meetings with a court-appointed mediator, Frank Fragale.

The settlement of the buyout removes what could have been a distraction for U-M and Rodriguez this fall. The dispute had resulted in a firestorm of bad publicity from West Virginia followers and Rodriguez had continually address the buyout controversy in press conferences and in some public appearances.

Rodriguez's agent, Mike Brown, said this morning he had no comment on the settlement, other than to say, "It's done."

"It's over with, and we're moving forward," he said in a phone call this morning. "It got done today, so it's done with."

A reporter for The News was told that Martin and athletics spokesperson Bruce Madej were in a meeting and unavailable for comment this morning.

The dispute had promised to linger into this fall after a judge had recently ruled letters between U-M and the coach, which included discussions of the buyout between Rodriguez and West Virginia University - can become evidence in the lawsuit.

West Virginia University attorney Jeff Wakefield had argued in circuit court that the letters underscore Rodriguez"s knowledge about the buyout provision before the coach accepted the position at Michigan.

"It will demonstrate we believe that Mr. Rodriguez was clearly negotiating with the University of Michigan, that he had this provision in his contract that he needed to honor and needed to be paid," Wakefield said, according to West Virginia's MetroNews.

Stone's ruling on the letters was a setback for Rodriguez and his legal team, which had sought to keep the documents out of court. During a deposition of Rodriguez in April, the coach's attorney instructed his client not to answer several questions related to any potential agreement with Michigan about covering the cost of the West Virginia buyout.